How can I copy an EBS snapshot between different EC2 regions?

Background

You may have noticed that EBS Snapshots are region specific, and by default, cannot be directly copied between regions using the AWS console or the RightScale dashboard. There is, however, a way to get your snapshots copied over to different regions.

Answer

Basically, your workaround is to use rsync to copy the data between regions. First, you can create a new EBS volume or stripe on the region you wish to copy data to. After creating the destination, you will want to run the following command to copy data from the source EBS volume to the EBS destination:

rsync -avz <user>@<host>:/path/to/source/ /path/to/destination/

Rsync will use SSH to connect by default, so it communicates over port 22. If you want to connect to a specific port, or configure any parameters with your connection shell, or use a different shell entirely, use the --rsh switch. Following is an example of using --rsh with rsync:

rsync -avz --rsh='ssh -p 1234 -l <sshuser>' <rsyncuser>@<host>:/path/to/source/ /path/to/destination/

Note: If you want to configure site-specific connection options for the --rsh switch, you can edit/configure options in your ~/.ssh/config file.

Once data is copied over, you should be free to take a new EBS snapshot or backup in the new region and continue using that snapshot as you would in any other region. You may need to install a private key to communicate between servers, since, by default, password authentication is disabled on instances running with RightImages. You can find an article for installing a private SSH key here or by using our RightScript to install the key automatically, here.